We
recognize that in man's nature there is a drive to oppress others,
be they truly alien or his own women. Perhaps the true measure
of his power is how openly he can indulge in this.

Viton:

These
gentle emotions, what good are they? Love, compassion, amity;
what purpose do they serve? To my mind they are socially invalid,
obstacles to emotional efficiency. There is no more constructive
emotion than hatred.

Harkur:

Civilized
man longs for the illusion of barbarism. Either his culture fulfills
this need by adopting its outer trappings, or he will be seduced
by his first contact with a culture that does.

Harkur:

A
man's most sacred possession is his privacy of mind. Examine him,
torture him, break him; still his thoughts are his own until he
chooses to express them. This concept is one of the foundations
of Braxin philosophy. Psychic ability, by its very nature, guarantees
violation of this privacy. Therefore, we should not and will not
tolerate it.

Harkur:

The
more complex the language, the greater its capacity to influence
the thoughts of men.

An
uninspired ruler works to develop those relationships which will
be most to his advantage. A great ruler determines the most desirable
relationships and assumes them in to being.

Viton:

It is
in the nature of man that he is antagonistic toward the others
of his sex. Each man sees in another a potential competitor for
the limited rewards of male success, and the hostility which arises
between them is a part of the natural balance of human life.

It is possible, as is in the case of father and son, that a closeness
will arise between two men which threatens the functional hostility
of each. It is the duty of society to provide an artificial means
of encouraging the proper degree of antagonism.

Viton:

For
the true warrior, friendship is disarming and security is deadly.
Both weaken a man by giving him the illusion of might, when in
fact they undermine the very foundations of his own power by causing
him to rely upon others. Anything that distracts a man from his
chosen course is abhorrent to one who values his own strength.

Harkur:

If
the Braxanà, or any other single tribe, were to try to
rule Braxi for an extended length of time, they would have to
set themselves apart from all other Braxins. They would have to
create an image so alien to the rest of Braxin culture that no
other group could aspire to it, and do it to such an extreme that
the image itself becomes synonymous with power. Then and only
then, no man would dare to question their rule.

You can
remove undesirable emotions from society's repertoire by careful
manipulation of cultural trends. You can revise your language
so that a man has no means of expressing that which is forbidden;
lacking a familiar label, he will eventually lose his grasp of
the concept itself. You cannot, however, wholly excise emotions
from a man's character and still expect him to be a complete human
being.

Harkur:

He who
controls the soldiers, controls the throne.

Harkur:

A man's
greatest enemy is his own fear.

Harkur:

In
order to make the most of the future, we must first comprehend
the past.

Harkur:

A man
does not truly understand his limitations until he has tested
them.

Viton:

It is when
a man's House seems most secure that he is most vulnerable from
attack.

Nothing,
not even pleasure, an bind two humans as close as a long-enduring
vendetta, for it forces upon each a constant awareness of the
strengths and vulnerabilities of each other, and commits them
to a common purpose which colors all other activities.

Harkur:

Above
all else, never underestimate the enemy.

Viton:

The true
k'airth is a complex and dangerous sport, in that it forces one's
enemy to continually improve his skills. The most successful
participant is he who can manipulate this factor. To cause the
enemy to over-extend himself, or to channel his energies down
paths that will ultimately destroy him, is often the subtlest
and most pleasing of all strategies.

Viton:

And then
- say the Braxanà - Taz'hein turned on his Creator, and
war came into being. The gods turned their men into warriors,
pawn against pawn, brother against brother, and blood was spilled
on the surface of the planet. Thus was man baptized by the treachery
of the gods, to know the rich variety of conflict. And when Taz'hein
was supreme in the Void he saw what men had become, and he withheld
the hand of destruction which he had meant for them. "This
is good," he said, "and since you have truly learned
to live, I will not take that life from you. But if you must seek
guidance, look to the Void - for it is as likely as I to answer,
or to care."